Dodgers Rumors: Could Team Pursue Strasburg?
Don’t look too far ahead, but this offseason Washington Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg will be a free agent. With the team in need of a potential true number two starter, or even a 1B to Clayton Kershaw’s 1A, could the Los Angeles Dodgers be in on the talented pitcher?
Well, it’s hard to say, but you wouldn’t want to count out the team considering their seemingly unlimited resources. Before people automatically brush this aside and say that the team didn’t want to pay up in order to re-sign Zack Greinke so why would they pay up for Strasburg, consider the difference.
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From the Associated Press, via ESPN:
According to a recent report, Strasburg won’t cash in right away. [Agent Scott] Boras told Fox Sports last week that he and the Nationals aren’t talking about an extension and that those discussions will wait until the end of the season.
The above snippet shines a light on the fact that it appears that Strasburg, under direction from agent Scott Boras, will wait until the end of the season to discuss an extension with the Nationals. The thing is, if he’s unable to reach an extension with the team in a timely manner, all the teams could pursue him.
And why wouldn’t the other teams in baseball pursue Strasburg? The soon-to-be 28-year old right-hander has compiled a career 3.09 ERA in 776.2 innings while striking out a ridiculous 901 batters and walking just 192. The talent is there, as evidenced by his 2.83 career FIP. He’d be worth the money.
That’s where the differences between he and Greinke starts to manifest itself. Greinke hit free agency a full four years older than Strasburg would be, and that’s a major deal. That’s four prime pitching seasons out of Strasburg that you wouldn’t get out of Greinke. It’d make sense for the Dodgers to spend on him.
Now, none of this suggests that the Dodgers would actually sign him, but going after Stephen Strasburg in free agency, if he gets there, seems like a thing that this front office would be interested in. He’s young enough, good enough, and marketable enough to be worth the astronomical contract he’ll receive. Not to mention that he is from Southern California.
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Strasburg makes sense in theory, and on paper, for the Dodgers, but we will have tons of impact pitchers reaching the majors in the next two years I’m not sure if he totally makes sense. Maybe if we could swing an 8 year deal, with an opt-out options after two years and four years, that way Strasburg doesn’t have to compete with the massively insane 2018 free agent class, and also gives him one more chance to land a longer deal at 31 years (after four years) similar to the Greinke timeline, then it would be a great idea.
Also, we have to consider how much he will cost, and also how much Kershaw will cost to extend (assuming he very likely opts out when he can), and also how much we are willing to throw towards free agents in 2018 like Harper or Machado to fill spots on our roster with young, superstar caliber talent.
Let’s not forget that Strasberg has had Tommoy John surgery. This has to be a factor for any team looking to signing him.